Why React is not a framework ?

Often wondered, as a frontend developer, why do we consider React as a library, not a framework? I know you can Google or GPT it, and it will give you differences between React, Next, Angular, Vue, and how they differ. We’re not comparing their differences here, but understanding the psychology behind those differences.

Let’s understand it from a software developer’s perspective. Have you ever asked your organization’s leader or manager why they built their product on React, although there are hundreds of JavaScript frameworks available? but Why React?

I understand the community behind React is pretty awesome, but that’s not the only answer. React is not tightly bound with its environment or the things we use along with it. Let me explain, have you ever created a new React app and seen main.js, which has the createRoot API from react-dom? Have you ever thought why it's from react-dom and not from react? That's where the answer to this question lies.

React-DOM helps us interact with the browser's DOM. I repeat, the browser's DOM - basically for web applications. So, the main entry point where React connects with the browser is through this createRoot API, and then we render our App.js there.

Why am I telling you this? Because, what if we take out the React-DOM package and use something different? Have you thought about that before? If you have, you are almost there. react-dom is not bound to React; we can use different ways for React to interact with web browsers if we plan to do so.

Think about it in a wider perspective where we’re not significantly using React with browser DOM, we’re not binding React to the Web itself. There are solutions where we use React to build mobile applications, for example, React Native. For this, we won't need react-dom as it's only for web applications.

So, there can be multiple ways to use React. There might be possibilities that React can be used in IoT devices or electronic devices, which we can't deny. And this is just a tiny part of it.

This flexibility of React, to fit wherever possible as needed, gives us the idea that React is not a web framework. It’s not tightly bound to patterns of writing code, routing, generating structure, managing state, or binding. It is a library which can be used anywhere.

In short, understanding React is not about how to write React code and design components, but the real understanding is why React!